We had a great reading week. Since I usually read Smarty two books before bed, I tried to have them go together, so she could get more of “a story time” experience. Our geography topic was Australia, and we read several good books about Australian animals. And this brings us to Smarty's picks of the week:A Kangaroo’s World by Catherine Arnold was recommended by Ticia from Adventures in Mommydom. I was a bit skeptical looking at the cover and illustrations in the book, but I was wrong. Smarty really liked the book, and both of us were fascinated with its facts. I have never known that baby kangaroos are born incredibly tiny and spend the first 6 months inside the pouch. The book also gave basic facts about kangaroos’ diet and their natural enemies.
Both of us also enjoyed I Like Your Buttons by Sarah Lamstein. I found this from this list. It’s a nice story where a sincere compliment of a girl to her teacher sets off a chain reaction of positive events and eventually comes back to her. Smarty was working out the story in her head for several days to figure out how the beginning and the end of the story belong together. I thought that the book teaches the message of random acts of kindness without being overly didactic about it.
Since we just had a beautiful full moon, we read Possum’s Harvest Moon by Anne Hunter. It’s a very nice seasonal book and also pretty good for hibernation topic in science. Possum wants to have the last Soiree before long winter sets in, but at first his animal and insect friends are too busy to accept the invitation. Eventually they change their mind and come to say “goodbye” to summer. It’s a nice calming story, and Smarty was fascinated to learn that all these animals are going to sleep through winter (well, we didn’t discuss the fact that some of the insects will die instead). I was also surprised when she launched into discussion about the animals who don’t sleep through winter and was able to name quite a few of those.
I like to discover unfamiliar books by familiar authors. Practically everyone knows Jane Yolen from How Do Dinosaurs… series, but Baby Bear’s Chairsis just as good. It rhymes well, and it has subtle humor for adults and for children in it. It was Smarty's favorite for independent reading in bed this week together with the first book I reviewed. I found her sleeping on these two books every evening when I came to check on her.

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